The "final verdict" on the day's Twins baseball action.

New Playoff Structure: Pros & Cons

So, Major League Baseball announced today that baseball’s playoff format will be changing. There will now be two wild cards in each league, with each team playing a one-game playoff to decide who advances to the Division Series round, where it is then business as usual.

There are two things I like about this system:

1. It gives my Twins a better chance to make the playoffs! Heck, I wonder if the two consecutive one-game playoffs featuring the Twins in 08-09 and the excitement they created played a part in this decision!

2. How many times have we seen this rivalry during the regular season…

…but have it mean very little because both teams knew they would be making the playoffs. In the new format, there is much more incentive to win the division.

There is one major reason that I do not like this new format, however, and that is because I feel it is little more than a giant…

…for baseball’s lack of a salary cap. I realize that Selig wants more teams to have a shot at making the playoffs, and this format does just that. However, how much does it truly affect the competitive balance of the league? I would argue very little. The rich teams will still be rich, while the poor teams will still be poor.

Overall, though, I don’t mind the changes all that much and I guess we’ll just have to see what happens.

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1 Comment

I don’t see how the Twins’ two one-game playoffs could not have factored into the decision. The only bad thing about the decision being affected by those games is that the better team lost both games (I’m a Twins fan as well), so it just reinforces the unfairness of the system. Although, I guess that kind of is the point.
-Mateohttp://mateofischer.mlblogs.com

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